


on the breast of your delicate friend

by tunemyart



Category: Xena: Warrior Princess
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-03-08 03:52:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18886627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tunemyart/pseuds/tunemyart
Summary: In which Gabrielle and Xena start to look at mornings differently.





	on the breast of your delicate friend

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Anne Carson's translation of Sappho 126. _I'm sorry_ , this is the most unable to help myself I've ever been. 
> 
> Set sometime soon after they become a couple; for me, that's in between The Quest and Day in the Life, so enjoy some season two-ness.

“Hey - wake up, sleepyhead.”

 

Gabrielle’s consciousness slowly answered the call of that voice, but her body snuggled deeper into the furs she had wrapped around herself in the night. 

 

“You’d be less cold if you put on some clothes,” Xena suggested, already from a distance. 

 

If Gabrielle were more awake, she’d scoff, because had Xena seen her clothes? They weren’t exactly the warmest things around; and it wasn’t like she was snuggling down because she was cold, anyway, the blankets just happened to smell like Xena and Xena wasn’t in them. 

 

Gabrielle calculated that she had about two more gentle reminders to get out of bed before Xena actually got cranky, and so stayed put for the moment, opting to let the sight of Xena prowling about their camp, dappled in the early morning sunshine, barefoot and armorless, wake her up instead. 

 

Gabrielle loved Xena in this state - well, Gabrielle loved Xena in all states - but there was something in particular about this version of her that hovered at some halfway point between the warrior princess who vibrated constantly with the need to move, to go, to do, and the woman who intentionally made herself vulnerable before Gabrielle.

 

“Gabrielle, come on, we don’t have all day.”

 

Her voice was already starting to hover around the realm of impatient - Gabrielle had miscalculated. Blearily, she got to her feet and shivered immediately. Xena hadn’t seen, thankfully, from where she was turned away and slightly bent over as she tied something off, so Gabrielle was spared another comment about finding her clothes. Gabrielle took the opportunity to study her and shiver again, still a little caught off guard by the suddenness with which her craving for Xena’s body could overcome her.

 

“Gabrielle?” Xena said when she rose to her full stature, probably surprised to see her up, let alone approaching her with determination. 

 

It didn’t matter. Gabrielle threw her arms around her waist and buried her face in her breasts, inhaling the musky scent of her skin trapped there along with the more familiar scent of her leathers. 

 

So warm. So soft. So  _ smooth.  _ Infinitely better than the furs. Gabrielle could fall asleep here again without any effort at all, pillowed against Xena’s unbelievable softness and supported by her unbelievable strength. 

 

“Having fun?” Xena’s voice asked dryly in a way that told Gabrielle that she was probably rolling her eyes. But Gabrielle wasn’t fooled: Xena’s fingers had automatically strayed to scratch through her hair in just the way they did late at night when Gabrielle was sprawled bonelessly over her, when Xena was at her softest and most tender.

 

“Uh huh,” Gabrielle mumbled, sighing deeply in contentment. “Comfy.”

 

“They’re not going anywhere, you know. You can always visit them again tonight.”

 

“You promise?” 

 

“Sure.”

 

Gabrielle sighed again, this time aggrievedly, and gave the full curve of each breast a kiss before she resurfaced. Xena’s face was caught between tenderness and fondness and exasperation, her fingers still giving her away as they lightly played in Gabrielle’s hair. 

 

“I really like your breasts,” was all an unrepentant Gabrielle offered as explanation, a grin she couldn’t help pulling at her lips. 

 

Maybe it was infectious: Xena’s mouth was starting to curve, too. “I’m glad,” she said sincerely, her long fingers leaving Gabrielle’s hair to trail teasingly down her shoulders and chest until they gently squeezed over Gabrielle’s own breasts. “Yours ain’t bad, either.”

 

Gabrielle had closed her eyes at the start of the unexpected massage, biting back a moan. In Gabrielle’s admittedly limited experience, it was unusual for Xena to go for morning sex, but she wasn’t about to complain. Maybe she was starting to change Xena’s mind about it - maybe she could convince her to redirect some of that relentless energy into other pursuits - 

 

Then Xena bent to take one of her breasts into her mouth, and Gabrielle didn’t try to bite back the moan this time. Her hands were the ones to fly into Xena’s hair now, fisting handfuls of it unconsciously near the base of Xena’s skull, just tightly enough that Xena returned the moan around the sensitive flesh still in her mouth; and by the gods, Gabrielle would do this every morning if this was all it took. 

 

And of course, that was the moment that Xena released her, capturing Gabrielle’s lips instead in a kiss to silence her inevitable whine of protest. 

 

“Tonight,” she said, and pecked her lips again chastely. “Get dressed.”

 

Gabrielle stared at her, uncomprehending. Surely she wasn’t serious. She laughed a little, expecting the joke to land, but Xena merely looked back at her, serene except for that tiny quirk of her lips that was just devious enough to tell Gabrielle that she was impossibly serious. Her face fell. 

 

“But - “

 

“Dressed. Clothes. Go. It’s already late.”

 

“Xena, you can’t just - “

 

“Oh, can’t I?” Xena asked, stepping away and finding Gabrielle’s top nearby on the ground. Unceremoniously, she threw it at Gabrielle, who caught it, spluttering. “I’m afraid you’ve got a lot to learn about me.”

 

Gabrielle had already surmised as much, and was alarmed to realize how incredibly alluring the prospect was. Xena must have read it on her face -  _ damn  _ her - because she only laughed infuriatingly and came around Gabrielle to pull her hair out of her top as Gabrielle laced it up angrily, dropping a light kiss in the join of her shoulder and neck.

 

“You know, if this is all it takes to get you out of bed and dressed, I’ll do it every day,” Xena said, drawing a teasing line down Gabrielle’s abdomen. Gabrielle slapped her hand away with a “hey!”, but then considered her words. When she turned around, Xena was looking at her expectantly. 

 

“What?” she prompted. 

 

But Gabrielle shook her head and smiled, and turned to get her skirt where it lay a few more feet away.

 

“What?” Xena asked again, an entirely different kind of morning energy making her body buzz almost visibly; and Gabrielle laughed full and free, because she smelled room for a compromise, and she was going to enjoy every moment of fighting for it.


End file.
